


Pencil

by theMusicmaniac



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aliens, F/F, Fluff, Galra Empire, How Do I Tag, Mentions of Nightmares, Mentions of sleep paralysis, Pre-Femslash, Prisoner of War, Set in Voltron Universe, Spaceships, This is actually pretty fluffy for a prison fic??, like barely there, not beta read either, not scientifically accurate, this is utter trash, very minor stockholm syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 19:30:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15007787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theMusicmaniac/pseuds/theMusicmaniac
Summary: Rae is seriously getting sick of this whole being chucked into jail by intergalactic purple aliens thing.“I think you deserve to be treated decently, despite, y’know, being ten hundred percent evil.”“.....Your logic there stands much to be desired.”“Screw logic.”“Famous last words. Also ten hundred percent is not a number.”“You must admit the evil part is true though.”“Really.”“You sprained my wrist. And also captured me to be imprisoned by a galactic purple-obsessed empire. I look terrible in purple.”“What an utter tragedy.”“Y’know what, it so totally is.”





	Pencil

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is just a little story I wrote when I first started watching Voltron, back in season 1, because I was listening to Paint the Town Green by the Script and then somehow that led to "what would happen if a person started doodling/painting on the walls where they weren't supposed to" because my life goal is to be able to draw on my bedroom walls, which then led to "I should make a character that does that in a prison cell or something, yeah that'd be amusing." and it finally led to this little. Thing. Whatever this is. It's pretty cheesy(Read: bad) since I wrote it a while ago, and it's a little out of date considering I based it on the first couple of seasons of Voltron, but I thought I might as well post it.
> 
> Lol this is not even remotely scientifically accurate, and the swearing is very inconsistent. I don't even know if half the things are plausible. My physics teacher would weep. Enjoy ;)

Rae is seriously getting sick of this whole being chucked into jail by intergalactic purple aliens thing.

She bucks and kicks desperately as cold metal hands grip her arms, forcing her up the steps onto a waiting ship. The soldier with them sheaths his blaster back into it’s holster and follows them inside, the ship doors closing behind them.

The sentries chuck her into a waiting cell and she lands painfully on her injured wrist. Black spots dance over her vision as the door slides shut with an ominous whirring sound. She glares at them through the glowing crisscrossed cell bars. She didn’t doubt that a simple brush with the doors would fry her.

The soldier walks past the cell without even acknowledging Rae’s presence. A screen is quickly called up at the control console of the small transport ship, and a call made.

“Commander Sendak.”

“Soldier.” the Galra on the screen’s lip curls.

“I have her.”

Nothing. Then:

“Oh, really.”

“Yes, sir. I captured her at a trading post.”

Silence.

“Hmm. Alright soldier. Bring her back to the main ship. Preferably Alive. But not necessarily.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Fail me again and I’ll make sure you have a fate even worse than hers.”  

The soldier bows his head. “Vrepit sar.”

The screen shuts off.

 

Rae glares at the soldier as he sits down and starts up the ship. The Galra apparently don’t take kindly to betrayals, even from smugglers. She would find a way to escape. There’s no way she’s going back to that hellhole.

Rae settles down to watch. And wait.

 

* * *

**…**

 

When she wakes up God knows how long later, her left wrist is swollen and as purple as the stupid aliens. And something sharp is poking her thigh.

Rae gives a small groan before sitting up, stifling her cry of pain at accidentally moving her injured hand. She pokes and prods at the bruised skin, deeming it to be only sprained. She must have fallen asleep eventually after the ship left the trading post. The soldier and sentries are nowhere to be found. She gets up slowly from the ground, walking cautiously towards the bars, taking care not to actually walk into them.

The ship is small and rather...rattier than she first thought. It definitely looks like it’s seen better days. There’s a control panel near the front with two seats. Both are empty. The flashing screen indicates that the ship is on autopilot, currently heading toward the Black Eye galaxy.

Her cell is located towards the back of the ship. There’s a closed door to the right(the living quarters Rae decides) and a charging station to the left. She notices now that the sentries are hooked up to it, although one of them is still online, simultaneously keeping guard and watching the ship’s course.

She frowns. Her blaster is nowhere in sight, and the ship is stripped bare of anything useful, unless she wishes to bludgeon the soldier to death with what she assumes to be the Galra equivalent of a sleeping bag.

Discouraged, Rae goes to sit down on the bed, yelps and promptly leaps back onto her feet. The Sentry turns to look at her.

She smiles cheerily at it until it turns away again.

She unzips her back pocket and digs around, eventually pulling out a medium sized piece of wood.

 

A pencil.

 

* * *

**...**

 

Rae finds herself staring at the pencil in her hand. She can’t help it. It’s a normal, standard, orange, Earthian number two pencil with a pink eraser at the end. She can’t even remember when the heck she had put it in her pocket. It must have been at least a year ago.

Yet...she can’t stop looking at it. It’s the most she’s had of home in a long time. It’s the safest thing she’s seen in a long time. It was a time when the most she had to worry about was getting into a good university, about figuring out who she was and building a happy life for herself. Before the car accident.  Before she found that ship, and decided to climb aboard to investigate. Before all of this bullshit happened.

Her normal life.

Tears well up and spill over, and she curls into herself, pencil clenched tightly in her uninjured hand.

The ship flies on.

 

* * *

**…**

 

Rae eventually calms down and rips off a strip of her thin blanket to wrap up her swollen wrist. She contemplates putting the pencil in it as a splint, but then decides that she couldn’t bear it if she were to accidentally break the thing. It might not be that helpful, but she’s sure that she can think of something to use it for. She looks up in the middle of struggling to tie a knot as the door to the right of the ship slides open with a soft hiss. The soldier steps out with their helmet under their arm. Rae stares.

Now looking back on it, Rae didn’t know why she assumed it was a guy this entire time. It’s true that she rarely sees female Galra soldiers when she infiltrates their ships. Theoretically, she knows there must be a female counterpart of the species unless the aliens reproduce asexually, but...she’s still pretty speechless.

The most shocking about all of this is how...different the soldier looks.

Sure she’s humanoid and has the signature glowing yellow eyes, and purple ears. But she has black irises and the violet of her ears blends into the light blue, almost teal, of her skin. Her short hair has a colour gradient going from a midnight blue at the roots to a silvery white at the tips. Her armour is bulky enough to cover up the fact that she’s a girl.

She spares Rae a brief glance before she strides to the front of the ship and settles in the pilot seat, taking up the controls in order to weave expertly through a gigantic asteroid cluster. She sits there for an hour or so, flying, and occasionally pulling up documents on the screen with one hand as she maneuvers, before she finally clears the rocks, turns on autopilot again and gets up, leaving without a word.

Rae realizes that her makeshift bandage had fallen off and she hadn’t even noticed.

 

* * *

**...**

  


Rae is in the middle of poking dejectedly at her meager meal of purple space goo when raised voices from the cockpit pulls her attention up and away. The soldier is on another call. Except it’s not Commander Sendak she’s talking to.

“Why was I not notified that I was switched to a different fleet?” The soldier was asking, glaring daggers at the screen.

“It is not my duty to personally notify every lowly soldier that gets moved around in the Empire.” the galra snarls in reply. “Commander Sendak has encountered some...misfortune with the rebellions. I am his replacement.”

“But-”

“Silence.” She snaps her mouth shut and lowers her head. Her fists remain clenched.

“I am still your superior officer, _soldier_ , and you’ll do good to hold your tongue around me. Count your blessings that someone like _you_ was even allowed into the ranks. I will have complete obedience or I will have you shipped out to the work camps _half-breed_ , understood?”

“...Yes sir.”

“Good. You were ordered to be here two vargas ago. Where is my prisoner?”

“The ship Commander Sendak gave me to transport her is hardly in top condition.” She snarls back.

Cold silence.

“I expect you here in three quintants or there will be consequences.”

“...Yes sir. Vrepi-”

The call disconnects with a sharp click before she even finishes her sentence. She growls and slams her hands onto the control console before turning around sharply, glaring when she notices Rae watching.

Rae quickly shovels a spoonful of goo into her mouth, cheeks bulging and smiles cheekily at the soldier.

“Want some?” she says through her mouthful, holding out the plate and no doubt looking absolutely disgusting.

The soldier glares, and stomps off into the other room. Rae quickly swallows and wipes her mouth, a contemplative look on her face as she stares after the agitated Galra.

 

* * *

**…**

 

Rae discovers that the killer in being a prisoner, at least in her case, is not the horrid food or even the paralyzing fear. It’s the mind-numbing boredom. She’s been trying to come up with an escape plan, and so far the best thing she could think of was still somehow finding a way to bludgeon the soldier to death with the sleeping bag.

The cell lock is fingerprint coded. The criss-crossed bars are heated up as well as electrified and the mesh is dense enough that nothing bigger than an eraser can get through. The sentries keep watch over her twenty four seven. She has no idea where her weapons are, and the cell insures that she has no privacy, and therefore, no way concoct anything that might help her escape. She could try and get the soldier to open the cell by pretending she’s ill. But considering the Commander didn’t seem to care if Rae was brought alive or dead meant that she probably wouldn’t fall for that. Not to mention they’re travelling in space with no planets for light years around. She doubts, even if she does escape her cell, that she’ll be able to overpower two sentries and a highly trained soldier to hijack their ship without her weapons.

She hates to admit it, but her best bet might be to strike when they finally dock and she’s let out of her cell to be transferred. After staring at the smooth blank walls for an undetermined amount of time, she takes out her pencil again to stare at that instead.

The orange is the only splash of warm colour in the bruised blues and purples of the ship.

She twirls it a couple times in her right hand before shrugging and placing it to the wall beside her, doodling random little swirls and stick figures, whistling cheerily while she does it. She drops the pencil onto the bed and stares back at the ceiling, not faltering in her whistling when the door to the living quarters slide open suddenly and the soldier walks out to the control console to get her tablet.

She raises an eyebrow at Rae’s rendition of the Star Wars theme song before continuing back to her rooms.

Rae picks up her pencil again as soon as the door slides shut.

 

* * *

**...**

 

Rae’s nightmares wake her up, screaming, a couple hours later. She’s had them frequently over the last few years, and they usually switch every once in awhile, sometimes featuring her parents, sometimes about that short while she spent in Galra captivity.

This time it’s about the Galra destroying Earth. It’s a new one, a new fear, and Rae grasps desperately at the orange pencil that she fell asleep with for comfort. She curls into herself, shaking and crying silently. Her chest aches and she holds that little piece of her past life to her heart, staring blindly at the walls, subconsciously zeroing in on her little doodles.

It’s somehow comforting, seeing something else that’s ordinary. She remembers distantly how she used to love to draw, back on Earth. Her parents paid for her art classes, and she was even good enough to win some ribbons in the contests she entered.

Still life drawings. Sketches of the ones she loved. She stumbles out of her bed and collapses near the side walls. She raises a trembling hand, pencil still held tightly in her grasp.

Her tears smudge the dark lines she creates, but Rae doesn’t stop, can’t stop, until her nails are bleeding from peeling back wood, until her fingers are coloured black and she’s too exhausted to continue.

She falls asleep at the base of that wall, curled around her broken memories.

 

* * *

**...**

 

Her wrist seems to be healing pretty well, under the circumstances.

Rae woke up a few hours ago, eyes swollen and face sticky from her tears, back aching from sleeping on the cold floor. It took her a minute to realize there was someone standing outside her cell watching her.

The soldier had her arms crossed, staring at the wall behind Rae, covered in sketches of the ocean, snow covered cities, of forests and starlit skies. Of her family.

Rae had slowly pushed herself up onto her elbows, partly to mask the drawings, and partly so she could glare at the soldier better. She must have looked pretty pitiful, enough so that the soldier had merely tilted her head, raised an eyebrow at her disheveled appearance, and the tiny pathetic looking pencil, before rolling her eyes and stalking away.

Now Rae’s sitting silently on her cot, her pencil safely tucked in her pocket, testing out her wrist and watching the soldier out of the corner of her eye. She’s sitting at the control console again, legs criss crossed on the seat, reading reports that were sent to her via messaging. This is the most relaxed Rae has think she’s ever seen her. She’s slouched down in her seat, not even trying to maintain her posture(which looks rather ridiculous while in full body armour), and her expression is serene for once instead of twisted into a glare.

She also appears to be tinkering with something. The most Rae can get a glimpse of are hints of metal, and clinks as the soldier fiddles with them. Sometimes she would put them down so she could type something out on the screen, but she mostly spends her time absently playing around with the thing in her hands.

Rae re-wraps her wrist and then sits there watching her curiously until she eventually dozes off.

 

* * *

**…**

 

Rae wakes slightly confused with a painful crick in her neck and an angry galra girl tearing up her own ship. She frowns at the soldier currently bashing in the poor seat cushions, before noticing the flashing screen on the control panel that indicates a call had just been disconnected.

Ah. That explains it.

Rae realized pretty quick in the day and a half she’s spent in this soldier’s company that she didn’t particularly like her commanders. They don’t seem to like her either. Rae wonders idly, as she watches the soldier abuse a sleeping bag, if there’s a story to be told there. Point is, Rae has spent the past day and a half in perpetual boredom mixed with crippling sadness and fear and restless sleep. She’s rather through with simply watching.

“You know it might be more satisfying to smash something breakable, instead of strangling a sleeping bag. Might I suggest one of your eerily competent robots?”

The soldier doesn’t comment, but Rae notes with some satisfaction that eventually she stops beating up unsuspecting sleeping bags and starts smashing cups.

 

* * *

**…**

 

That night she wakes up screaming for her parents.

She spends the rest of the time sketching broken glass and bent metal, trying desperately to air out the festering infection in her cuts.

 

* * *

**...  
**

 

Rae receives a pretty big shock a few hours later when she sees the soldier wearing casual clothes.

For the past half-hour she had been attempting to do pushups to exercise her limbs, and re-awake her mushy muscles. An alert at the cockpit had started beeping and a few minutes later, the door to the living quarters slid smoothly open and Rae almost face-plants with surprise. The soldier had changed out of her armour and is wearing a loose(unsurprisingly) purple hybrid jacket hoodie thing over a black bodysuit. She looks half asleep. Her white hair is a tangled mess.

She trudges to the front console and taps begrudgingly at the screen, scoffing in annoyance when the message is apparently unimportant.

A shit-eating grin takes over Rae’s face, and she lets out a low whistle. The soldier spins around and glares at her, hands still poised over the screen.

 “Nice bedhead, soldier girl.” There’s a few moments of silence as the soldier stares. Rae jumps slightly when she slams her hand suddenly back onto the console, effectively shutting down the message.

 She quickly stomps back out, and Rae feels a triumphant grin spread over her face when she realizes she had managed to fluster the girl.

 

* * *

**…**

The night terrors get worse the longer she stays in the cramped cell. She wakes up from them even when she merely naps and buries her face in her pillow to try and stifle the screams.

She tries. She really does.

But this time her hands are shaking too much to hold the pencil.

 

* * *

**...**

Soldier girl is singing.

Rae doesn't think she’s actually aware that she's doing it, but this time the soldier is humming and singing while she deals with her assorted paperwork. And her hands are carving something. She’s smiling.

It’s so mundane. It’s comforting. She smiles and sings along in her head. Her nightmares ease a bit when she sleeps.

She picks up the pencil again.

 

* * *

**...**

The next time the Commander and Soldier Girl talk is so that she can notify the commander that the ship is running out of fuel so they have to make a detour. They're already a couple vargas over the deadline.

“I’ll have your badge, soldier!” The commander shouts.

Soldier girl shuts off the transmission without saying another word. Her back is tense and she stares daggers at the control console.

“That commander’s mohawk was lopsided.” Rae comments mildly.

Soldier girl turns to look at her. She still looks incredibly stiff, and Rae is bored, so she smiles pleasantly and keeps babbling, throwing in a couple insults about the Commander here and there. She gets creative. 

Soldier girl’s mouth twitches. She stomps out and Rae feels warm triumph blooming under her skin.

 

* * *

**…**

Sleep paralysis is the next thing that happens.

Rae wakes up half panicked from her nightmares and finds that she can't move. She sees shadows creeping at the foot of her cot. Sees the pain in shades of purple. Sees the walls and the harsh lights and the syringes.

Her body won't obey. She twitches desperately. Her breathing becomes harsh and ragged until she’s having a full on panic attack. Control of her body returns eventually and once it does, she screams.

She backs up against the wall like a cornered animal and screams and sobs and claws at the purple prison until her nails are torn and she can taste the blood in her throat. Usually she calms down from a dream after ten minutes or so but this time, she doesn't stop. A door slides open eventually and she notices distantly through her blurred vision that soldier girl is watching her with a blank expression on her face.

She sits down against the side wall and takes out the pieces of metal and carved wood.

Fits them together. It's an instrument. An unfamiliar one.

She plays over Rae’s screams.

They calm to ragged breathing and eventually she dozes off again.

 

The music doesn't stop.

 

* * *

**...**

Soldier girl is passed out slumped against the side wall. There's a line of drool dripping from her open mouth. She's hugging her instrument. Rae feels herself smile despite her sore throat and the ache in her chest and she finds herself pulling out the little orange pencil.

She puts it back to the wall.

 

* * *

**…**

Her pencil is almost gone.

At this point Rae has clawed at the wood to get to the graphite so often that the colour is flecking off. It's also merely a nub from her excessive shading and crosshatching. She feels a flicker of panic at losing the one thing she has of Earth and resolves herself not to draw anymore.

It's a sad thought.

Rae notices that soldier girl is sitting at the control console again, flying the ship. She’s back in her armour. The silence is stifling, and Rae doesn’t want to go unheard any longer.

“Do you mind if I talk a bit?”

Soldier girl tenses at the control panel before tilting her head inquisitively.

“I'm in a very talkative mood right now. And I feel like one nightmare away from going insane, so be prepared to listen to me spill my entire life story. Aspiring dreams, teenage angst and insecurities all included of course."

Soldier girl snorts.

“I’m...I’m gonna talk about Earth.” Rae pauses to gage her reaction. Nothing. Not even a twitch.    

“It's a very stupid thing to do.” Rae points out cheerfully. “You have the potential to use the information against me, but at this point…” She doesn't finish her sentence.

“Do you know how I came to be a smuggler in the first place?”

Soldier girl dodges a small moon.

“I was about nineteen or so, in university for life science. I wanted to be a medical researcher. Or a biologist. I wasn’t sure at the time. Careers are annoying.” Rae lays back down to get more comfortable, hands tucked behind her head. Her injured wrist twinges slightly but she ignores it.

 “My foster family were the ones paying for my schooling. Parents are dead.”

 Soldier girl reaches over the console to flip on a switch.

 “They took me to go visit their relatives back in France...Wait, you wouldn’t know what that is.” Rae thinks about this. “You...don’t really need to know anyways I suppose. Canada is my home, and France is their home, but in the end, they’re just landmasses and I’m simply an Earthian.”

Rae looks over at soldier girl. “Anyways. Their relatives lived on a farm next to this cool forest. I used to call it the Forbidden Forest. Even though that’s England, not France.” She laughs a bit. “If only I had a wand, that would make my life _so_ much easier.”

Soldier girl raises an eyebrow at her.

Rae grins. “Sorry. Earth culture reference. Evil wizards and the like.”

Soldier girl looks even more confused. Rae pushes on. “Point is, one day I decided to go for a walk in it, and I found this weird, spaceship...thingymajigger. It was _really_ fugly. Turns out it was a couple of smugglers getting more Earth merchandise to sell. Although for some reason they stole a couple cows…”

Rae stared at the wall lost in thought. Soldier girl clears her throat pointedly.

“Oh yeah.” Rae jolts, coming back to herself. “Sorry. I was on board and snooping around the storage room when a couple of boxes toppled on me and knocked me out. When I came to, I was millions of lightyears away from Earth.”

Rae reaches for her pencil again for comfort. “I couldn’t understand what the alien smugglers were saying, and they didn’t understand me so I couldn’t explain why I was on their ship. They kicked me out at the nearest trading post. I stole a translator, and snuck onto a different spacecraft.”

Soldier girl jerks the ship violently to the right to avoid a meteor. 

“I explained my situation to them, but they were smugglers too, and you can guess that they aren’t the nicest people. They were gonna hand me over to the Galra.” Rae smirks suddenly, “right up until I saved their asses in a trading exchange. They took me in and taught me everything I know.” 

Rae closes her eyes. “I kept trying to get back to Earth, but things kept preventing me from it, and eventually I just...stopped.

Rae stares out through the front screen into space.

Soldier girl turns to look at her for a second. Her eyes flick to the drawings on the wall behind Rae. Then she leans over the console again without a word, and flicks on another switch. Landing sequence flashes up onto the screen.

Rae closes her eyes again.

 

* * *

**...**

Rae is more than a little surprised when her next meal tray arrives through the slot in the wall with a box of pencils. Coloured art pencils.

She stares dumbfounded.

She notices that the ship is docked at what seems to be the equivalent of a transport ship gas station and Soldier girl is watching her from the doorway, an unreadable expression on her face. Rae looks up to thank her, and then stops when Soldier girl suddenly smirks. Her eyes flick to the purple walls behind Rae where she had sketched the silhouette of a very familiar looking Galra.

Rae blushes.

“You should colour that in.” She says, wicked glint in her eye. “Purple’s not really my colour.” and then she _winks_ . She _fucking winks_. Good lord.

Soldier girl disappears from the doorway and Rae collapses in a flailing heap on her cot, utterly _deceased_.

 

* * *

**...**

The next time the Commander yells at Soldier Girl, she collapses into the pilot's seat with a tired and fed up groan as soon as the transmission ends.

“Hey, Soldier girl, answer me this.” Rae said perplexed. “Why do you choose to stay a soldier if they treat you like crap?”

Rae expected to be ignored like all the other times. She wasn’t.

“For a half-breed like me, it’s...easier, to stay, then to try and find my way on my own. I never really had a good enough reason to leave.”

Rae contemplates this, and they fly in silence.

 

* * *

**…**

“I think you deserve to be treated decently, despite, y’know, being ten hundred percent evil.”

“.....Your logic there stands much to be desired.”

“Screw logic.”

“Famous last words. Also ten hundred percent is not a number.”

“You must admit the evil part is true though.”

“Really.”

“You sprained my wrist. And also captured me to be imprisoned by a galactic purple-obsessed empire. I look _terrible_ in purple.”

“What an utter tragedy.”

“Y’know what, it so totally is.”

 

* * *

**…**

“Hey, do you have a name? I’m getting kind of sick of calling you Soldier Girl.”

“Passengers shouldn’t distract the driver.”

“I mean I suppose I could come up with a more cringey nickname to try and entice you to tell me your real name-”

“Do you ever stop talking?”

“Snoodly-poop sounds fitting in this situation-”

"Um-?”

“Buppy-bunnykins-”

“No-”

“Cuppy-cake snookum-”

“Please stop.”

“Ha. Your face looks like a radish. So my Tousled-teal-tinted friend, what if I were to tell you my name first?”

“...”

“Well, Snoodly-teal-buppy-poop-bunnykins, my name’s Rae. Well. Actually, my name’s Rafe, Rae is just a nickname my friends used to call me on the account of me complaining about  my name, but no one’s called me that in years. Anyways, Rae is fine. It stands for Rae of sunshine, the most enchanting creature you will ever encounter in this-”

“Lore! My name’s Lore.”

“...Lore. I like that.”

“Glad to hear it. Now shut your yapper.”

 

* * *

**…**

“You’ve been awfully quiet these past few hours.” 

“...” 

“....Whatever you need to say, I can handle it.” 

“Two vargas Rae. I’m sorry.” 

“Oh.”

 

* * *

**…**

Rae spends the last two hours on the Galra transport ship colouring in her memories and counting her odds at winning if she chose to try and make a break for it. The odds weren’t good. Rae clenches the pencil so hard it almost breaks. Ugh. Stress colouring. She hasn’t done this since she was in grade five.

Rae pauses when she reaches the portrait of Lore. She had drawn her in profile, eyes closed like she had been that time she fell asleep against the wall. Except in the photo she was in formal armour, hair haloing around her head, facing towards the sun, a dark silhouette against the blood red dawn.

She frowned down at the sky blue crayola pencil in her hand. It wasn’t even remotely close to Lore’s actual skin colour. She grimaces and picks up the green and purple pencil crayons as well so she can at least attempt to recreate the same hues. 

Lore watches Rae colour from her position in the cockpit, her face carefully blank of expression.

She doesn’t have a good enough reason to leave.

She doesn’t.

 

* * *

**…**

Rae can see the main ship.

She’s wound up tighter than a coiled spring, but makes an effort to relax her muscles. If they notice her as stiff as a board they’ll catch on to the fact that she’s going to try and escape. She grips the pencil in her pocket tightly and watches Lore at the controls as the view screen shows them accelerating towards the ship.

Lore’s glaring at the panel like they personally offended her, her hands clamped down tight on the thrusters. She’s so tense she looks like an elastic that’s about to snap.

Rae can see the closest airlock leading to the docking bay slide open. Landing lights line the runway, flashing. Lore is still glaring at the control panel, instead of being a competent pilot and looking at the view screen.

“Lore?” Rae frowned at her back, a tinge of panic colouring her voice as they drift closer to the main ship. “Soldier girl? Look buddy, I am sure you have a valid reason glaring at the control panel like it stole your first born child but I need you to look up and steer so we don’t become paste on the side of the gigantic purple spaceship. Kay?”

She growls and closes her eyes, grimacing.

“Lore!” Rae flails. “Why are you shutting your eyes, that’s not what I told you to do that’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do!!”

No response.

“LORE.”

Lore’s eyes snap open at that and she glares back down at her hands before she turns around and fixes Rae with an almost thoughtful and contemplative look. She doesn’t seem to notice the gigantic looming wall of metal bearing down on them behind her.

Rae flips her shit.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING EVERYTHING THAT I’M TELLING YOU NOT TO LOOK AT THE DAMN VIEW SCREEN!!” Rae heroically screeches, plastering herself against the back wall. “Holy hell she’s suicidal, what the fuck did I do to deserve this-”

“Shut your quiznak and let me do my job.”

Rae emits an indignant squeak. “Woman your job is to pilot me _safely_ to my inevitable doom on a gigantic purple spaceship, not smear me across the exterior like some weird and violent paint job!!”

“Well. Change of plans then.” Lore’s eyes glint dangerously. “I’ve got a new career.”

Rae has just enough time to grimace at the incredibly cheesy line, because _why_ and emit a very courageous and not at all wimpy shriek, before Lore turns back to the front, yanks the thrusters to the side and they peel away from the hangar entrance.

“WHAT IN THE FLYING FUCK ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!” Rae yells again, holding onto the cot for dear life. A couple fighters detach from the ship and begin shooting. Lore weaves and dodges like a madwoman.

Immediately, the two Galra sentries re-charging in the chambers come online, unlatching from the ports. Their lights glow red suddenly, and both step towards the cockpit.

“WHAT THE FACK.” Rae yells. “YOU HAVE SENTIENT ROBOTS?!”

Lore snorts. “Of course not. They’re programmed to finish their mission at all costs, and destroy anyone in their way. Namely me.” She yanks the spacecraft suddenly to the right and the sentries are thrown to the side. Then she calmly pulls up another screen, slamming her hand onto the handprint.

Rae’s cell doors slide open. She stares.

“Take care of those two for me please?”

It takes a second for the request to register and then Rae is launching herself at the sentries, tackling both of them to the ground. She is of course, immediately thrown off, the metal arm knocking the breath out of her. Rae acknowledges that might not have been the smartest move

She kicks out at one of them just as Lore accelerates past two Galra fighters, the force of both knocking the sentry into the cell bars.

The robot twitches as it’s fried by the charged and heated mesh, and it drops to the ground. She throws off the other sentry and dives into the next room as it tries to grab her again.

She scans the living quarters quickly before grabbing the nearest weapon she could find. Which just happened to be a high-tech heavy metal lamp. She turns and swings just as the sentry charges at her, and the robot’s head crumples like aluminum foil.

A sharp turn to the left throws Rae back into the main room.

“Quiznak Lore, there are unbuckled passengers on board!”

Lore doesn’t respond, her lips pressed into a thin line as she continues to dodge fighters. Her face is pale with fear. Rae scrambles forward and buckles herself into the co-pilot’s chair.

“Well?” she asks, staring out at the view screen.

“I meant it when I said this ship’s seen better days.” is Lore’s tense response. “We can’t outrun them, and I can barely dodge the lasers fast enough."

“Weapons?”

Lore grits her teeth, “Sendak restricted them on my ship when I messed up one too many times. No clearance.”

Rae growls, “It’s still our best shot. We don’t stand a chance without blasters.” She pauses. “Give me full control of the ship.”

“What.” Lore stares.

“I’m not Galra, I can’t pull up your stupid programming. Hand over the flight sequence to me, and you find some way to start the fucking weapons system.”

Lore glares at the view screen before snarling. “Fine.”

A couple of taps, and the thrusters in the co-pilot’s seat jump to life under Rae’s hands. Immediately she guns it, and Lore turns her attention to pulling up new screens. She types furiously at the keyboard, and red lights flash over and over up on the screen. A handprint appears, asking for authorization. Lore snarls something about Commander Sendak in Galran, which Rae assumes isn’t very flattering.

“What about the sentries?” Rae asks desperately as she does a series of barrel rolls. Lore looks at her like she’s utterly insane.

“Sentries do not have the authorization to clear weapons use!”

Rae frowns. “You said they’re programmed to do whatever it takes to complete the mission! Isn’t there a chance that once they turn all...red and glowy that they might have authorization for weapons if the mission dictates it?!?! Destroy anything in their path right?!?!?”

Lore sits there, stunned.

“Well it’s worth the shot.”

She smashes her fist onto her seat buckle and darts for the sentry in the doorway, dragging it bodily back to the control panel. She slams the hand down on the handprint. No response.

“It reads heat. No power source.” Lore mutters under her breath. She looks back at the cell bars.

“No!” Rae glares, “Don’t even fucking think about it you suicidal fuck-”

Lore yanks wires out of the sentry’s arm and then is out of her seat before Rae even finishes her sentence. She runs into the other room and returns with an armful of metallic objects. Positioning the second sentry near the cell, she quickly places every single metal object so that they’re all touching. With a well-aimed kick, she sends the sentry’s arm slamming into the bars.

The hand jerks violently and the handprint lights up green. There’s a collective hum that shivers through the room as the blasters switch on and warm up.

“The fuck that actually worked.” Rae breathes, violently yanking on the thrusters. Lore chucks her blaster at the the sentry to knock the connecting arm off the bars before she darts back to the seat and shoves the robot off.

Buckling back in, she drags the blaster controls up. Her eyes are positively glowing with excitement.

“Let’s see what we can do here.”

 

* * *

**...**

They make it out of the firefight.

The ship definitely needs some serious maintenance, and Rae is pretty sure she has a mild concussion from being tossed around like a rag doll but they’re both alive and free and so she’ll take what she can get.

Rae turns to look at Lore a few minutes after they had managed to throw off the fighters and escape the gigantic Galran spacecraft. She had turned control of the ship back to Lore since out of the two of them, she was the better flier. Now Rae wishes she had something to do with her hands.

The silence is rather awkward.

“So. Soldier girl.”

“Nope, no distracting the driver.”

“This again?”

“Of course, I actually abide by the universal space traffic laws.”

“I call bullshit.”

“Shush. My ship, my rules.”

“Lorrrrrre."

“Yes? Rafe.”

“Oh ew, that sounds weird.”

Lore snorts and gives her a smirk, but doesn't respond. Rae finds that she doesn't mind Lore using her real name.

There's silence as Rae gathers her thoughts.

“You realize that gigantic firefight would’ve been avoided if you hadn’t chosen to make your move one second before we entered that Galra hangar.” Rae frowns at Lore suspiciously. “As a matter of fact,” she says, “why did you choose to do all this in the first place?”

Lore is silent.

“Not that I’m complaining.” Rae tacks on as an afterthought.

Lore purses her lips. “I only really decided at that point in time.” She answers calmly. Rae stares.

“Your timing stands to be improved.” Lore nods. “You could say that.”

“...And my second question?”

Lore frowns. “Basic morality?” She squints. “My conscience was chaffing.”

“...That’s not really an answer.”

“You’re right. It’s not.”

Rae falls into a contemplative silence again.

 

* * *

**…**

“You don’t know me? We've met for a couple of days _at most_.”

“Yes. Your point being?”

Silence.

“...I sincerely hope you aren’t this much of a dumbass everyday.”

“Don’t count on it. Rafe.”

“Ugh, I hate you.”

 

* * *

**…**

“Wasn’t that your entire life?”

“You would call that living?”

“...”

“Case. And point.”

 

* * *

**…**

“Would you consider us as friends?”

“We better be. I just gave up my entire species for you.”

“Errr, I’d think that’s more of a mild acquaintances thing..."

“I will eject you into space, you little-”

*laughter* “Alright, alright chill soldier girl! We’re friends.”

 

* * *

**…**

Rae wakes from a restless, terror filled sleep simultaneously disoriented, scared, and sore. Not a good combination.

She sits up slowly, trying to figure out her surroundings. She’s in the living quarters of the Galra transport ship, if the bunk beds protruding from the wall are any indication. She’s occupying the bed farthest from the door in the corner of the room. The room is surprisingly cosy, with a small desk melded to the wall and a tiny bookcase. The mattress and sheets are soft, and she notices that the covers of the bed beside her are thrown back. Lore is nowhere to be found.

She jumps a mile and almost smashes her head into the top bunk when she suddenly hears a rather ominous clanking sound from beneath her feet.

“What the fuck.”

Rae hurries toward the doorway and almost smashes into it when it fails to slide open quick enough for her limited patience. The thought of a ship malfunction in the deep, empty, abyss of space will motivate a person like that.

She freezes however when she feels the light hit her face, blinding her momentarily.

There’s light.

Sunlight.

It’s warm and it’s bright and it’s familiar and Rae stares helplessly dumbfounded at the view screen at the front of the ship. She can’t believe it. It’s so achingly overwhelming and perfect and painful that she doesn’t _want_ to believe it. She’s rushing forward before she even knows what she’s doing.

Her hands hit the smooth surface of the viewing screen with a dull thump, and her eyes are wide and overflowing with the colours, blinding and so different from the oblivion of space. They fill her up to the brim with greens and browns and whites and then she looks up at the expanse and emptiness and there’s blue and blue and so much blue that she feels like she could drown in it.

The colours and hues and shades blur and mix together until they’re forming a breathtaking symphony, a kaleidoscope of a million beautiful things and Rae distantly realizes that she’s sobbing desperately.

She’s heaving for breath and ugly crying and that wonderful ache in her chest just grows and grows until she feels like she could fracture with the emotions roiling under her skin.

Her forehead thumps onto the view screen and she shuts her eyes, soaking in the warmth. Seconds turn into minutes turn into half an hour before Rae finally calms enough to step away from the screen. She turns to open the door and steps into the light.

The first thing she feels is the wind.

It plays with the strands of her hair and dries the salt water tracks on her face and she can’t help a happy sigh. It’s amazingly refreshing after breathing the stale recycled air of shuttles and trading posts for such a long time. She realizes they're under the thin canopy of trees in a shallow forest.

She finds herself sinking to her knees in the warm grass and just burying her fingers into the soil. There have been other planets of course. Other ones that are similar enough to make her ache with the thought of home and assuage that pain at the same time, but nothing can quite match up. Nothing quite compares.

Eventually she notices the disgruntled, swearing Galra girl in her sightline.

Lore is sitting cross-legged in a chaotic ring of ship parts and violent looking powertools muttering to herself. Half her face is covered in grease and Rae finds it mildly amusing that she doesn’t seem to know or care.

She stands up slowly.

“Hey.”

Lore jumps before turning around quickly, her hands still clutching the power tools. Her face goes from fear to surprise to a blank expression in the space of a few seconds.

“You’re awake. Sorry I just left but the ship needed maintenance-"

“You brought us to Earth?”

Lore blinks at her before she nods and goes back to her tinkering.

“How long do we have?”

“Basic cloaking ensures a couple vargas before they realize that meteor that supposedly burned up in the atmosphere wasn’t actually a meteor. Advisable for us to be gone by then.”

Rae hurriedly walks over to help Lore.

 

* * *

**...**

Thankfully, the ship doesn't require maintenance outside of their know how.

There’s a couple of bumps along the way, but they have all the spare parts they need, and Lore simply assembles them and does a systems check before she deems ready to take off again.

Rae hesitates as she watches Lore step onto her ship, tool bag in hand. She's not sure if she's offended or appreciative of the fact that the other girl just assumed Rae would be staying on her home planet. She doesn't seem the type for goodbyes.

“Wait.”

Lore pauses, and looks back at Rae.

“We finished earlier than we thought we would. Let me show you something?”

She hesitates, staring at Rae quizzically, but eventually nods.

They exit the ship, making sure to reactivate the cloaking device, and Rae leads Lore out of the thin brush, striding out into an open expanse of grass. She can see farmhouses dotting the skyline on the edge of it, but no one's outside and they're too far away to see. They're safe.

Lore let's out a startled gasp behind her. They had arrived in the late afternoon, and with the hours they've spent tinkering on the ship, the evening had slipped into that twilight zone right before day turns into night.

The sky was painted shades of every colour imaginable, and the sun, a glowing sliver on the horizon.

Lore smiles happily, leaning back against a tree.

“I haven't seen one of these in forever.”

Rae hums, leaning beside her. “Yeah. Space just doesn’t compare. Ever since I’ve left Earth, there's hardly been the opportunity.” They descend into a comfortable silence as they enjoy the sunset.

“Y’know I’ve never known my home planet…” Rae whips around to stare at her. Lore doesn’t meet her eyes.

“It was destroyed long before I was born. I’ve heard it was beautiful.” Rae stands there uncertainly, wanting to comfort but not knowing how. Eventually, she settles with placing a hand on Lore’s shoulder.

“I’m sure it was.” She replies, watching Lore worriedly.

“Sometimes, I wonder why we feel the need to destroy other people's world's when we’ve known the pain of losing ours. I’ve seen so many beautiful places... they're gone.”

Rae doesn't respond to that, and, in silence, they watch the light disappear on the horizon and fade into dark. She glances back at Lore to find her looking around at her surroundings, arms crossed, torn expression plastered on her face.

The stars are blinking into view above her, too far away from the city lights to go unseen.

“It's gorgeous here.”

“...it's home. It's been my entire world since I was a kid.”

“How many worlds…” Lore falters.

“...am I gonna have to watch be destroyed?”

Rae is silent as she watches Lore's expression, contemplating, breathing in the cool night air. It lights an aching warmness in her chest, this feeling of home, one as painful as it is brilliant. Should she leave again? Could she?

She thinks of a girl who has never even known her home planet and the possibility of countless others, made to be the same. The answer is surprisingly easy to find. Rae finds herself sidling up to stand in front of Lore, mirroring her pose. “Well. We could always try and do something about it.”

Lore doesn't glance up.

“Like what?”

Rae slides her fingers under Lore’s chin, tilting her head up to look her in the eyes.

“Revolution.” She whispers ominously, wiggling her eyebrows. Lore gives a small laugh.

“Drama queen.” She whispers back.

But there's a new kind of spark in her eyes, small and weak, but enough to light dry kindling and burn, bright and hot for a very long time. They head back to the ship, talking quietly, their voices and quiet laughter filtering back through the calm quiet of the forest.

There's a slight disturbance in the trees, a soft hum, a barely noticed glow. And then they're gone.

 

* * *

**…**

 

When Rae wakes up again screaming from night terrors hours and hours later, she isn’t greeted by the cold purple walls of a cell, but instead by a warm bunk in the living quarters of the ship. 

Lore is so startled that she falls off her own cot.

Rae’s shaky laughter bounces off the walls, echoing back and eventually intermingling with a soothing tune from Lore’s instrument.

Rae only takes out the blue pencil crayon this time.

 

_Fin._

**Author's Note:**

> Did I really have no idea what to name the characters so I decided to take the "T" and "O" out of Lotor and add an "E" to make Lore's name? Yes. (As a person who really liked Prince Lotion as a character, Season 6 had me shook. I will literally never recover)
> 
> Did I also accidentally name my other main character Rae, only to realize that I subconsciously named her after my fabulous Rey from Star Wars, so I had to make her real name Rafe? Yes.
> 
> Did I really name my fic Pencil? I have no justification for this.
> 
> Also funny thing, I realized after I finished naming the characters that their ship name could potentially be Raelo. Like Reylo XD. Although I don't really ship it since I'm more of a Kylux shipper(although I will admit Reylo is adorable) I found that interesting so I decided to keep it the same. 
> 
> I'm kinda considering making this a series, and have Lore and Rae eventually meet Voltron or join the Coalition, but then again that's kinda still just vague ideas.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you liked it! Until next time fellow humans!


End file.
